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Campaigning in Idaho on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested that he is opposed to a public school system overseen by the government.

“We didn’t have government-run schools for a long time in this country, for the majority of the time in this country,” he said. “We had private education. We had local education. Parents actually controlled the education of their children. What a great idea that is.”

Santorum’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for an explanation of whether he was calling for an end to public schooling as it now exists. But the former Pennsylvania senator has previously made his antagonism known. Campaigning in March, Santorum took a shot at public schools.

“Just call them what they are,” he said. “Public schools? That’s a nice way of putting it. These are government-run schools.” Continue reading →

Remember the name of Foster Friess. The Wyoming born-again billionaire mutual fund manager has been lauded by the Koch brothers at their 2011 secret shindig for giving more than $1M to Koch-friendly causes. Never heard of him? That’s the way he’s wanted it. After Rick Santorum’s huge pop in Iowa, though, a flashlight into the cockroach-infested giving of the SuperPACs to Santorum’s campaign flushed him out of the shadows.

Working on my weekly piece for Truth-2-Power, I was fascinated by how Rick Santorum won Iowa. I’m going with Rachel Maddow’s story on Friday that there was a miscount.

As I note in my piece, Santorum Rises Armed with Super PAC Nukes, not Populist Wave, two of these new post-Citizens United Super PACs, which can drop unlimited money into the campaign, sprang up in October and December. The James Dobson-associated Leaders for Families Super PAC, Inc and an Alexandria, Virginia based Super Pac called the Red White and Blue Fund popped up in December and October of 2011, respectively.

Before Leaders for Families could even file a source document with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), it opened and closed, having spend hundreds of thousands on Santorum in radio ads and robo-calls.

It’s the Red White and Blue Fund, though, that looks like it will be pushing Santorum through the leading edge primaries. That fund is mostly the cash of Foster Friess. Continue reading →

One of the winners in the top tier of the Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa doesn’t believe public schools should provide early childhood education, describing it as just an attempt by the government “to indoctrinate” children.

One of them has praised some of President Obama’s reform efforts.

One of them has said the Department of Education should be eliminated for many reasons, including that it “in some cases, forced medication of our children with psychotropic drugs.”

The top three winners in Iowa — former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, former senator Rick Santorum and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) — hold similar but not identical views on public education and school reform. Continue reading →

Thanks to his surprising surge, which brought him within eight votes of winning the Iowa caucuses, Rick Santorum is the candidate du jour. With his front-runner status is bound to come a new level on scrutiny directed at his track record and positions. One place to start is his stance on public education, of which the former Pennsylvania senator is not a big fan. As he said while campaigning in New Hampshire back in March, when no one was taking him seriously as a candidate: “Just call them what they are. Public schools? That’s a nice way of putting it. These are government-run schools.”

Santorum has campaigned on the fact that his seven kids have been home-schooled, which has earned him a loyal following of foot soldiers within the evangelical movement. (The same goes for Rep. Michele Bachmann, who on Tuesday dropped out of the presidential race.) Over the past year, Santorum has appeared at a handful of home-schooling conferences. In April, he won the Home School Legal Defense Association’s straw poll. There’s even a “Homeschoolers for Santorum” Facebook page. Continue reading →